Lanesborough Planners to Analyze Pontoosuc Lake Neighborhoods
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The planning board voted to request that Berkshire Regional Planning Commission conduct a non-conformity analysis of Pontoosuc Lake Neighborhoods.
The analysis under the District Local Technical Assistance would map out the Lake community parcels to determine what the effect would be if they were resized to minimum, smaller lots.
Vice Planning Board Chairwoman Barbara Davis-Hassan said the Zoning Board of Appeals receives many requests for variances because the lots are mostly non-conforming.
"We've just gotten a variance request or special permit requests every other month last year, and every one of them was around the lake," Hassan said.
When the neighborhood was laid out before zoning the parcels were 30 feet wide. Some of the now vacant parcels don’t quite meet the square foot minimum, she said.
One applicant’s variance request was denied because in order to conform they would have to use half of their right of way to may the 75-foot frontage.
The applicant's attorney requested that the board consider rewriting the zoning bylaws to make the lots smaller so that there are fewer nonconforming lots and therefore fewer variance requests brought before the ZBA.
"So I was just asked if we would consider allowing the lake properties to have a smaller footprint as a matter of a lake community, similar to that of Richmond Pond," Hassan said.
Board members noted that much more work was needed to achieve this including mapping.
"I'm not so sure you can simply deal with the zoning alone. Think you also have to deal with the paper streets too. The whole neighborhood is an absolute mess," consultant and Williamstown Town Planner who assists in Lanesborough Andrew Groff said.
A paper street is a street that is laid out on a map but has not actually been constructed.
Multiple board members agreed with Groff's sentiment.
Although the ZBA does receive variance requests connected to paper streets the amount does not compare to the requests the board receives from along the shoreline, Hassan said.
"So I wouldn't complicate this by adding the paper streets to it because they're not a problem right now," she said.
Groff said although it is not an immediate issue the town should at least get the information on paper streets because he felt it would come up.
Tags: zoning,
